EE Kestrel review

EE's taking the low end of the market seriously with the Kestrel, a 4G smartphone that's on the loose for just £99. We were expecting cheap, but can it be cheerful?

Chassis and screen

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EE's first own-brand smartphone is intended to be the first of a range of devices, all with birdy names. It's actually built by Chinese manufacturer Huawei and bears more than a passing resemblance to the Ascend G6 that appeared earlier this year. Like that phone it's no standout on the style front, notwithstanding a neat bit of styling in the curve of the bottom edge, but it's appealing in a minimalist, efficient, functional sort of a way.

It's impressively slim at a sliver under 8mm and reasonably lightweight too at 145g. But disconcertingly, the microUSB charging/syncing port is on the top, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is at the bottom on the side. This seems particularly awkward and means your headphone cord is more likely to get yanked out unexpectedly when it catches on items in your pocket or bag.

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The 4.5-inch screen offers a less than HD resolution of 960x540 pixels (245ppi). That's a step or two down from Motorola's budget star the Moto G's 1,280x720 pixels but while it most definitely lacks the wow factor, it's bright and sharp enough to avoid irritation.

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It's running the 4.3 Jelly Bean version of Android -- no surprise that it's not the latest 4.4 KitKat since budget models tend to get by with an older version of the operating system. That's no disaster though as the differences aren't huge and an upgrade is planned for later this year.

The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 1GB RAM. That's pretty impressive for a device at this price, and matches the spec on the Moto G. Our standard AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 17,451, which won't trouble any of the 30,000+ high-enders but in practise it did all the necessaries without any obvious signs of lag. The good-size battery held up pretty well, comfortably delivering close to two days of regular use and there are power saving settings to stretch it out still further.

EE Kestrel Test Photo

Dave Oliver

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The 5-megapixel camera includes an LED flash, autofocus and a few extra settings like Sound and Shot, which allows you to add a little sound to your pics, and Panorama. There's also voice-activated shooting and object tracking -- certainly more settings than you'd expect from a budget camera but again it's a few rungs below the Moto G's 13-megapixel snapper. Picture quality is fair, with realistic colours, though the autofocus can sometimes be a little wayward -- not a problem if you take your time though.

On the front is a 1-megapixel camera for video calls. There's 8GB memory onboard for storing your pics and vids plus you can add more via microSD card.

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Conclusion

The battle for the quality end of the budget market is hotting up.

The Kestrel may not have the Moto G's style or specs (processor excepted) but it delivers 4G for more than £30 less. Depending on your priorities, it's certainly a contender for the latest, greatest budget smartphone.